TruthNews

EU Delays Upgrade In Relations With Israel For "Political" Reasons

International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, 13 May 2010

Only two days after being accepted in the prestigious membership of the OECD club, Israel received word on Wednesday that its ties with the European Union will not be upgraded when the action plan for its bilateral relations expires in June.

As part of the European Neighborhood Policy that seeks to form closer ties between countries to the east and south of the EU, the plan was initiated in 2005 and aimed to upgrade political and economic ties with Israel. But the upgrades have yet to occur and the plan appears to be going nowhere.

"No one ever declared that the upgrade is frozen," Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said on Wednesday. "But we all know that it has lingered on and been postponed."

A recent report by the EU Commissioner cited "deterioration in the overall political context, in particular as regards the Gaza conflict in December 2008-January 2009 and a lack of progress in 2009 on the Middle East peace process (which has) affected the process of upgrading bilateral relations between the EU and Israel. The EU remains committed to upgrading relations with Israel, but the situation was not conductive to the resumption of the process."

"When the political decision was taken to upgrade in 2008, it was made clear that [a decision on an upgrade would] consider regional aspects and political developments," EU Ambassador Andrew Standley said. "The conditions for the implementation of the upgrade have yet to present themselves. This is a political decision. The implementation of the enhancement of the relations is an issue under constant political review."

He added, however, that contacts between Israel and EU institutions are already on a much higher level than the other 15 countries in the program due to Israel’s higher levels of socio-economic development.

In related news, Ami Orkaby, the honorary consul general to South Korea and Mongolia and now legal advisor to Japan on Israel has been working hard in recent years to improve Israel’s ties with countries in Eastern Asia, and those efforts have begun to show fruit.

"Both countries developed rapidly, and both countries did it with one hand on the gun and one hand on the computer," Orkaby said of the relationship between Israel and South Korea. "I read a lot of predictions that Asia will be the next big thing. I was pushed into that, and it became the center of my interest. It would seem to have been a good investment."

Israel is seen as a major strategic ally by South Korea, and the diplomatic representatives sent here are considered top notch. South Korea’s foreign minister, deputy foreign minister and US ambassador have all been former ambassadors to Israel. An Israel-Korea Chamber of Commerce is being planned, and many joint ventures have been forged between Israeli companies and companies in South Korea and Japan.

Finally, Israel’s economic and military ties with Latin American giant Brazil also continue to improve, as representatives of the Israeli electronics and aerospace firm Elbit gave a demonstration of their Hermes UAV to the Brazilian Air Force. The Brazilian military reportedly wants to buy a large number of Hermes and other armaments from Israel, in addition to other technical equipment and training.